Friday, March 18, 2016

MacLaren and Williams win singles but

Asia-Pacific take the Patsy Hankins Trophy

England's Meghan MacLaren and Chloe Williams from Wrexham, Wales both won their ties for Europe on the final day of singles but that was not enough to prevent Asia-Pacific winning the inaugural Patsy Hankins Trophy three-day match by a 17-15 margin at Vidago Palace golf course in northern Portugal today.MacLaren, who flew to Porto earlier in the week from Arizona where she had been competing for her USA college, Florida International, beat Hyun Kyuung (South Korea) by 3 and 1, finishing strongly to clinch the tie.Williams, a late subsitute for the sick Olivia Mehaffey (Ireland), recaptured the form which made her a GB and I international in beating Han-Hsuan Yung (Chinese Taipei) 6 and 5, having been five holes up on the ninth tee.Asia Pacific jumped into a 7-3 lead at the end of the Day 1 foursomes and four-balls but Europe took the Day 2 honours by a 6.5 to 3.5 margin, which reduced the Asia-Pacific lead to 1pt (10.5 t 9.5) with 12 singles to finish the programme.Asia Pacific managed to edge the singles 6.5 to 5.5 for their overall 2pt victory.In the men's match for the Bonallack Trophy at the same venue, Europe took the singles 8-4 for a 21.5-10.5 overall victory.

FROM THE EGA WEBSITE

After a slow start, the European ladies
had to recoup a four-point deficit from Day 1. Making up ground, winning
sessions three and four, the home side gave it their all on the last
day.

At times, the leaderboard even indicated a strong comeback and a
potential win by Europe when Frida Kinhult (Sweden), Laura Fünfstück (Germany),
Chloe Williams (Wales) and Meghan MacLaren (England) won the early matches.

The end result, a 17-15 victory for Asia-Pacific reflects an intense afternoon.
Europe eventually had to accept the defeat by Libby Steele’s strong
team, including Hannah Green (Australia) and Japanese Nasa Hataoka and Hina
Aragaki, who collected 3½ out of 5 points each.

Europe’s best performing player was Puk
Lyng Thomsen (Denmark), pictured right, who stayed undefeated in her four matches by winning
three and halving one. MacLaren and Fabrizio collected 3½ points out of
5.

Although Team Europe would, of course,
have liked to celebrate two victories, it seems fitting that
Asia-Pacific could lift the trophy in honour of late Patsy Hankins with
all her three children watching this historical moment on-site.